228 
QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 
who dive separately amongst the grass, and secrete themselves 
till the danger is over; and the parent, having decoyed the 
pursuer to a safe distance, returns, by a circuitous route, to 
collect and lead them off. This well known manoeuvre, which 
nine times in ten is successful, is honourable to the feelings 
and judgment of the bird, but a severe satire on man. The 
affectionate mother, as if sensible of the avaricious cruelty of 
his nature, tempts him with a larger prize, to save her more 
helpless offspring ; and pays him, as avarice and cruelty ought 
always to be paid, with mortification and disappointment. 
The eggs of the Quail have been frequently placed under 
the domestic hen, and hatched and reared with equal success 
as her own ; though, generally speaking, the young Partridges, 
being morq restless and vagrant, often lose themselves, and 
disappear. The hen ought to be a particular good nurse, 
not at all disposed to ramble, in which case they are very 
easily raised. Those that survive, acquire all the familiarity 
of common chickens ; and there is little doubt that, if proper 
measures were taken, and persevered in for a few years, they 
might be completely domesticated. They have been often 
kept during the first season, and through the whole of the 
winter, but have uniformly deserted in the spring. Two 
young Partridges that were brought up by a hen, when 
abandoned by her, associated with the cows, which they 
regularly followed to the fields, returned with them when 
they came home in the evening, stood by them while they were 
milked, and again accompanied them to the pasture. These 
remained during the winter, lodging in the stable, but, as soon 
as spring came, they disappeared. Of this fact, I was informed 
by a very respectable lady, by whom they were particularly 
observed. 
It has been frequently asserted to me, that the Quails lay 
occasionally in each other’s nests. Though I have never 
myself seen a case of this kind, I do not think it altogether 
improbable, from the fact, that they have often been known 
to drop their eggs in the nest of the common hen, when that 
